Robinson Brothers Receives GSK Innovation Award

West Bromwich, UK & CPhI Worldwide, Madrid, Spain, 11th October 2012: Robinson Brothers Limited, one of the UK’s largest independent chemical manufacturers, which includes wholly owned subsidiary Endeavour Speciality Chemicals, has announced that it has won the Chemical Industries Association’s (CIA) prestigious GSK Innovation Award. Robinson Brothers won the award for its novel, patented, AS100 vulcanisation accelerator, a ‘clean’ technology which contains only carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and the sulphur required to vulcanize rubber.

Vulcanization of rubber is a well know process and the products are used in numerous applications. Many, such as surgical gloves, require contact between the product and the skin, and the nitrogen curing agents historically used can cause skin irritation and allergies. Through a thorough understanding of the reaction mechanism, Robinson Brothers was able to develop a nitrogen free curing system that overcame these difficulties. Applications for the AS100 technology include surgical gloves, pharmaceutical stoppers, needle shields, diaphragms in inhalers and baby teats.

“There are multiple advantages to using AS100, not least the fact there are no chemical residues left in the rubber after curing rubber with AS100 accelerator, thus eliminating or reducing Type IV allergy reactions from the final articles,” commented Adrian Hanrahan, Managing Director, Robinson Brothers. “Additionally, AS100 cannot form carcinogenic N-Nitrosamines, which are a big concern globally.”